According to Sparkcentral’s new “State of Digital Customer Service in 2018” report, only 21 percent of enterprise contact centers use SMS/messaging for customer service interactions. Furthermore, 90 percent still rely on phone and email as the primary ways for communicating with customers.
In addition, the report reveals how contact center leaders are struggling with various work factors, such as how to measure performance and customer effort across digital channels, and how to use customer data.
While the majority of brands have rapidly elevated their strategies to deliver personalized marketing messages through the digital channels their target customers use most frequently, its is their contact centers that have not undergone the necessary level of digital transformation required to keep competitive.
For those enterprises that have embraced messaging there are business advantages. As am example, one respondent in the report states: “We want to reduce phone call volumes in our contact centers by giving our customers access to the service channels they prefer. Through implementing social media, web messaging, and mobile support, we aim to provide as many options and the best experiences possible for our customers.”
The signs are that more businesses plan to improve customer service delivery across online channels. Trends highlighted within the report include the fact that 57 percent want to enhance personalization in customer service interactions and 80 percent of respondents have agents that support multiple communication channels. In addition, 56.5 percent plan to add more digital channels by 2019.
The key message from the cross-industry research is that an increasing number of consumers are using digital messaging channels in their everyday lives – services like Facebook Messenger, SMS, WhatsApp and in-app messaging. This demonstrates the value and necessity of the digital transformation of customer communications.
